“There they are!” one of the Sin Mac pointed across to the hex boundary, fairly pointlessly. Every unit in the hex knew immediately the moment a force of multiple stacks entered your own hex with battle intent.

Daire shook his head. Bleedin’ scouts. Bleedin’ useless.

“Jakers, but there be a few of dem.” One of the nearby Knights muttered.

The Ogre, who was too big to fit on the limited ramparts, started jumping up and down to get a better view.

“Stop that, ya greet ting ya.” Daire growled. It was only new-popped. Everything was exciting. Daire had never commanded a Heavy unit before. He hadn’t even seen a Heavy unit until thisturn.

“Why aren’t they coming any closer?” one of the Sin Mac asked.

“Why aren’t they shooting at us?” Burkar looked at Garlezo, the armoured unit with no combat. Garlezo clanked and shrugged.

They hadn’t been expecting walls. No one had said anything about walls. The Giants had only taken the city site a turn back – or was it two? They had the funds to build a city and fortify it in two turns? How the boop did that happen?

Burkar stroked his chin. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed to help his automatic spot check as he assessed the enemy defences.

Garlezo cleared his throat. “Maybe… they don’t have any ranged units?”

Burkar stopped stroking his chin. “That would explain it.”

”Now what? We outnumber them, and have an advantage in Knight units. They seem to have some kind of Heavy on springs… And that wall will give them a defence bonus. Hmmm. What to do?”

Daire counted the approaching Gnomes, and then measured them up. Lots. And not so small, either. The Giants of Clanna Dedad were certainly gigantic. But the Gnomes of The Crafters were not that small. 3 base hits to the Giant’s 4. Both had base defence of 3. And the Giants had a better base combat, of 2 to 1. But there were twice as many Gnomes.

“But we have a wall.” Daire said this out loud, and looked around at his units, hoping they had not noticed.

They had.

They all nodded in agreement. Yes. We have a wall.

“A level one wall.” Added one of the Sin Mac.

Daire silently ordered him to shut his ugly mouth.

Burkar made up his mind. Not that he had a lot of mind to make up. Very few of his units had any move left. Most had come a long way this turn to attack a lightly defended city site.

No choice but to advance.

“Hello there!” he called out. No point in being impolite. “If you are not going to shoot at us, we are going to come over them and fight you a bit now. It’s nothing personal, you understand?”

Daire’s eyebrows lifted by one-eighth of a Titan’s hair. “No, no. We understand. Come on over and fight us. We understand.”

The Gnome commander stroked his chin for a moment. “You don’t want to surrender, then?”

Daire shook his head. “No, not yet.” His sense of loyalty was very clear on this. A lot of units were going to have to croak around him before that became an option.“How about you?” he asked back.

The Gnome shook his head as well. “Sorry.” Then he seemed to have an idea. “How about you come out from behind that wall, and we meet on this nice patch of grass over here?”

Daire shook his head again. “No, not likely. I think we’ll be staying right here.”

Things went alright, for a while. Yes, it was bloody, and yes, it was terrifying, but things were going alright.Burkar looked about at the end of the first phase, the fifteen seconds or so that every commander got to give an orders before the next lot of carnage began automatically. There wasn't much he could change in fifteen seconds. They'd stacked up, marched to the walls, and started stabbing. The walls were of fairly basic design - a mound of dirt, with wooden stakes on top. They gave those inside a bonus in defence, but it did not seem to be making much of a difference. The Gnomes had inflicted 43 wounds, and taken 48 in response. Acceptable casualties. Good casualties, even. The Giants had taken almost one third casualties. They still had more attacks in total. Have to keep going.

That first round was awful, Daire thought. Have to do better. Have to be better. Have to set an example. He swung his balde with an extra level of vigour. And it seemed to work."Come on, lads! Give them heck!"The second round came to its lull. Clanna Dedad, 43 wounds inflicted, The Crafters, 26. Not bad. Not bad at all.Both sides down to about 50% of starting strength.

Burkar called out encouragement this phase, but it didn't seem to do anything. Well, it distracted Garlezo long enough for him to take a Clanna battleaxe in the skull and croak on the spot.Third round, over. Clanna Dedad, 33 wounds dished out - Crafters, 16. "This is not going well." Burkar consulted his internal loyalty score. Titan's aglets! Not quite there. Both sides were down to almost a third of their starting hits, but neither side was at the break point."Let's go! They've got to be close. They've got to break!" Burkar hurled himself back into the fray, his wounded and damaged horde following.

Every blow was doing damage, now. Daire was an angry titan of blood, and every swing of his blade brought righteous vengeance on these otherwise quite polite gnomes.The rest of his troops seemed to feel it as well. This was all very one sided. Even one of the Sin Mac got in a good hit. The Ogre got a bit too excited and fell through the wall, landing on top of half a stack of Gnomes. The others readied their weapons, but had already spent their attack for the phase.A glorious phase! A phase that made you feel like fighting forever! This was why the Titans made the Erf!Then Daire looked at his opponents, scattered on the field, bleeding, screaming, dying. Perhaps not.

Burkar took his fifteen seconds, and lifted his hands. "Disengage. Fall back"Round four was done. Clanna Dedad had inflicted 24 hits. The Gnomes: 3.

Three?

Three.

Less than 10% of his sides attacks had inflicted a wound.

If that wasn't a sign, what was?

His units pulled back from the wall. Those who couldn't fall back due to being under an Ogre lifted their hands to indicate they were not engaging, except for unnamed Gnome 26, who lifted a foot, his hands being otherwise occupied with Ogre belly.

Burkar turned to the city, and looked for the Warlord on the wall. "What terms will you give me?"

"Terms?" Daire seemed surprised. "I don't know. I've never done this before. What do you want?"

Burkar spat blood on the grass. "I want these gnomes spared. Don't cwoak prisoners. You can cwoak me, if you like. You might be close to levelling. I think our ruler will pay for a prisoner exchange, but I can't promise anything."

"Agreed."

Burkar threw his weapon to the ground, and lifted his hands in front of him. The shackles formed.The rest of the Gnomes did the same. The battle was over.

Daire stepped down through the gap the Ogre had made, and walked over to Burkar. He bent down and picked up his prisoner's sword. "I accept your surrender. And I won't croak you without orders. Tend to your wounded."He walked away, then turned back. "I was going to say that it is good war is so terrible, but I think it is probably just terrible."

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